Stop GMO Consumption

GMO stands for genetically modified organism. The purpose of GMO foods is to make costs for farmers lower. Through bio-engineering, inserting a pesticide from another organism into the crop, they can save money on buying pesticides for their crops. First they find an organism with the gene they want, in this case a gene that kills off small bugs. Extracting this gene from the organism, they copy that gene into bacteria. Coating the bacteria with gold, they then load it into a gene gun. The bacteria are then shot into the seeds for the crop. When the seeds grow into crops the bacteria will multiply and create a natural pesticide for the plant. Monsanto currently owns 86% of all of the genetically modified seeds in the world.

GMOs have yet to be proven safe for humans. There has not been enough investigations done to prove that the benefits that GMOs bring outweigh the drawbacks. GMOs are only labeled in most developed countries. Canada is not one of them. A growing body of research connects these foods with health concerns and environmental issues. Canadians are often unaware of the foods they eat and unaware that they are eating genetically modified food. We have the right to know what goes into the food we eat. Labeling GMO foods will make people realize what is going into the everyday foods they eat.

PROS:

Natural insecticide in the plant, so they are safe from bugs and the producer won’t have buy insecticides. This was thought to increase the yield.

The latter has yet to be proven. In fact the use of bio engineering has caused bugs and weeds to grow stronger resistances against the insecticides and herbicides causing both to be used more. Having to put more natural pesticides in will make the cost of the seeds raise, the seed price balances out with the costs of buying pesticides. This leads to more damage to the environment and a rising health concern.

CONS:

Directly putting toxins and allergens into your body. Changing the nutrient content of the crop. Contamination between a GMO crop and a non-GMO crop. Antibiotic resistance. Creation of “super” weeds along with other environmental risks.

Donations

With 43% of all the donations going into the $11-15 range it has the majority of the donations. The next largest is in the $16-20 range with 30%. The least was in the $0-5 with only 7 %. $6-10 had 20% of all the donations. There is a total of 30 donations. 13 were within the $11-15 range. 6 Donations lie in the $6-10. 9 donations are in the $16-20 range. Finally 2 donations are in the $0-5 donation range.